The Stories We Choose to Tell: Fulfilling the Promise of Qualitative Research for Special Education

Abstract

In recent years qualitative research has earned an increasingly legitimate place as a form of systematic inquiry in educational scholarship. Special education researchers who draw on qualitative methods have responded by using this research paradigm chiefly to document stories of individuals with disabilities. However, rarely have these studies been extended to consider the broader sociocultural contexts within which disability exists. A case is made in this article for broadening the view of qualitative research that governs its practice within special education in an effort to challenge both the nature of the stories we choose to tell about disability as well as the frameworks by which these stories are disciplined.